A ROBBER who threatened a taxi driver with a syringe he claimed was infected with Aids was jailed for seven years yesterday.

Cabbie Christopher Pitcairn was forced to drive to his home in Norton, near Stockton, and hand over £130, while Christopher Currie, 33, held the syringe to his leg, said prosecutor Ian West.

Judge Tony Briggs told Currie, of Hilton Road, Billingham, who admitted the March 6 robbery at Teesside Crown Court, that he could not imagine a more terrifying threat.

Currie also admitted a separate blackmail offence in June last year over an alleged drugs debt.

Mr West said that drug addict Currie decided to rob Mr Pitcairn after hiring the taxi at its base in Portrack, Stockton.

He held the syringe about an inch from Mr Pitcairn's left leg, threatening: "If you don't give me money and do exactly as I say this needle is going in you."

He told Mr Pitcairn to turn off his radio contact with his base, adding that he was HIV positive.

During the robbery in Mr Pitcairn's house, Currie told Mr Pitcairn that if the police were involved he would return to the house to get his revenge.

The blackmail offence took place after Currie overheard a mobile phone conversation of a man arranging to buy drugs from a dealer.

Currie, who had convictions for violence and possessing a firearm, turned up at the meeting on playing fields near Rieuaulx Avenue, Billingham.

He threatened his victim with a penknife, punched him about the head, and forced him to phone his mother saying that he was being held captive over a £50 debt.

The mother kept an appointment outside the town's The Telstar pub where she handed over £20.

Rod Hunt, defending, said that Currie, a landscape gardener, turned to heavy drug taking after his wife walked out with their child.

Judge Briggs, who imposed five years of the seven years sentence for the robbery, told Currie that he had an appalling record of crime